


Peace In Our Time

by eerian_sadow



Series: Sight Beyond Sight [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Abuse, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Mentions of past abuse, Off-screen Character Death, Verbal Abuse, injuries, mentions of canon-typical violence, secret family relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 00:58:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5648044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jazz and Megatron has a relationship that is dysfunctional at best. It's finally coming full circle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peace In Our Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end(ish) of an AU that popped into my brain right before New Year's. There's a lot more to the story, and i'll be exploring it in other fics.
> 
> It's told as a series of prompt responses, telling the story in a series of short scenes.

Jazz/Optimus g1

 

**Betrayal**   
_”Jazz, Bumblebee and I have successfully reached our target. We should have acquired our objective and will be on our way out in ten joors.”_

Mirage’s report soothed a bit of nagging dread that the team leader had been feeling since they left on their mission. If his teammates retrieved the intel they were after, then everything would be a success even if he couldn't manage to destroy the power generator for the base. They'd probably be out safely, even, without his distraction giving them some cover. 

_”Acknowledged, Raj. Don't do anything stupid.”_

_”Bumblebee and I will leave that to you. Don't die, Jazz.”_

The saboteur smirked. _”It’s not on the to-do list. See you outside.”_

The open comm line fell silent and Jazz continued down the corridor. Without his friend’s reassuring chatter, his feeling of dread trickled back in. Something was going to go very, very wrong; he just couldn't pin down what.

“Oh! Jazz!”

The saboteur’s optics widened with shock as one of the senior agents rounded the corner and grinned at him. There wasn't even agent assigned to Darkmount currently. “Punch, what the frag, mech? You ain't supposed to be here!”

“I'm not?” For a klik, the other mech looked confused. Then his optics flickered--blue to red and back to blue--and his grin returned. “Guess I better report you to Megatron and get to my duty station, then.”

The black and white mech lunged at the other mech as he opened a comm line to Mirage again. _”I'm compromised and probably being taken prisoner. Get out in the fuss, and tell Optimus I'm sorry.”_

 _”Understood.”_ He barely hear Mirage’s reply as he slammed Punch into the wall. _”Stay alive. We_ will _come back for you.”_

 _”I'll do my best.”_ Jazz did his best not to scream when Punch responded to his attack by biting his wrist. His hand fell numb, and he lost what grip he had on the other agent. 

“Lord Megatron is coming, Jazz.” Punch’s optics flickered to a deep red. “And he seemed very glad to hear that you'd come to Darkmount.”

“That fragger is the last thing I need.” He pulled back his numbed hand and swung it at the traitorous mech’s head with as much force as he could. Punch howled when Jazz's hand cracked across his face, denting his nasal ridge and cracking an optic. 

He didn't wait for Punch to retaliate before dropping the agent and sprinting away. There was a waste disposal chute down the hall that led to a slag pit outside. If he could get there before Megatron arrived, he could get away.

He could even make out the shape of the hatch as he ran. Freedom was so close he could taste it.

Until a familiar form stepped out of a side room and planted himself in the hallway.

Jazz stopped running and held his hands up in surrender. “Soundwave.”

“Autobot Jazz.” Soundwave tilted his head to one side, studying the smaller mech. “You were unwise to return to Darkmount.”

“I realized I'd forgotten something I couldn't leave without.”

“Unlikely. Jazz will accompany Soundwave to the brig.”

“Yeah, all right.” The black and white mech bowed his head. “Never could get away from you, anyway.”

“Affirmative. Compliance appreciated. Soundwave will be lenient.” There was something that felt like an angry smirk in the blue mech’s energy field as he stepped forward and grabbed Jazz's damaged wrist and squeezed, reminding the saboteur who had control at the moment. “Your carrier will not be so generous.”

 

 **loyalty**  
Megatron walked a slow circle around the Autobot before stopping and staring into Jazz's visor. The saboteur’s hands wrapped around the chains holding his arms up toward the ceiling and used the bit of leverage it gave him to pull himself upright. 

“Welcome home,” the Decepticon leader hissed, “ _Meister_.”

“This ain't home and I ain't Meister.” Jazz stared back at the grey mech defiantly.

Megatron frowned and slapped the black and white mech. Jazz rocked with the force of the unexpected strike, but didn't look away.

“You are who I say you are, _Meister_. Or have you forgotten just who it was that brought you into this world?”

“You may have carried me and built the first frame I ever wore, you probably even made me the mech I am today, but I don't owe you the slag buildup on my exhaust pipe.” The saboteur felt a small bit of pride as the guards at his cell door fell silent in shock. Megatron had clearly never made their relationship public knowledge. “Not after all the abuse you heaped on me for being _defective_. Damage my medic says was caused by being hit in the face repeatedly, by the way.”

This time, Jazz was expecting the punch that smashed into his face, denting his cheek and cracking the lower edge of his visor. 

“This is your last chance to come home, Meister.” Megatron's voice was thick with rage and coated with a false kindness that might have manipulated a younger version of the Autobot into doing what he wanted. But Jazz was older and wiser, and knew he would get the beating and the torture no matter what.

Better to take it on his own terms and buy his team the time they needed to rescue him. “I may have lived in Darkmount, but this place was never my home. I wouldn't willingly live here again if this was the last energon reserve on the planet.”

The warlord punched the saboteur again, cracking the already buckled cheek plate and widening the crack in his visor. Then he turned and stomped to the door.

One of the guards didn't move out of Megatron's way quickly enough and the large mech grabbed the other by the throat. “Find Vortex and tell him I want this _Autobot Jazz_ so broken that he can't even remember he has a name.”

Jazz shuddered as the guard was released and tried to brace himself for what was coming. All he had to do was hang on until Mirage and Bumblebee came for him.

 

 **escape**  
The first thing Vortex had done after he arrived was cut the cables that hooked his visor into his neural network. He had thought he would be disorienting Jazz by removing an extra sensory network, but instead all he did was sharpen the accuracy of his sonar and echolocation systems.

There was other damage too, but none of it was any worse than Megatron had ever been. Vortex had really just been warming up before Onslaught called him away.

He knew, however, when his rescue showed up. Jazz was well aware of Mirage’s presence long before the noble hissed his name, thanks to sound alone. “If you’d get me unchained, I’d be about the happiest bot on the planet, ‘Raj.”

“Thank Primus.” The fuzz in the air that told him the energy shield on the cell door was active faded into silence. Mirage’s footsteps, soft and muffled enough to be missed by all but the most sensitive of audio receptors, moved quickly into the cell. “I was beginning to think I wouldn’t find you.”

“I had faith in you.” The saboteur cocked his head, listening intently to movement above them. “Better hurry with those chains, though. Sounds like the Cons are heading out of the mess.”

“I will.” He could feel the vibration in the air as the noble circled him, looking for the locking mechanism on his shackled. “Oh, your optics!”

“Ain’t a thing, ‘Raj. Get me down. The clock’s ticking.”

“Jazz, this damage looks permanet.” Mirage’s usually collected voice trembled, even as his fingers worked against the shackles in order to free the other mech.

“It is, but it ain’t a thing. We’ll worry about my vision after I get out of here.” Jazz smiled as the lock beeped once and his wrists fell out of the shackled. “Perfect.”

His knees buckled a moment later and he fell to the floor in a heap. Mirage made an irritated sound and bent to pick him up. “I had thought that damage looked more cosmetic.”

“Don’t really remember what Vortex did to my legs,” Jazz confessed. “I was off in my happy place.”

“It will be all right. It doesn’t look like anything Ratchet can’t fix.” The blue mech slung his team leader onto his back and activated his cloaking device. “You’re light enough to carry to the extraction point.”

“Then let’s get going, before Tex gets back.”

 

 **Follow the Leader**  
“Turn left at the corner.” Mirage’s pace slowed, though he didn’t stop moving, at Jazz’s softly spoken order.

“Jazz, you can’t even see right now.” The noble’s protest was equally soft.

The battered black and white mech scoffed. “Mech, I ain’t been able to see since I was a youngling. I can tell where we are by the sounds. Turn left at this corner. There’s a lift that goes all the way to base of the mountain.”

“An officer’s lift! We don’t have the codes to activate it, and even if we did, we will attract too much attention.” Mirage hoisted his team leader further up on his back. “We need to leave via the planned extraction point.”

“It’s safer if Bee takes the planned route and we take the lift. No one checks Soundwave’s codes, because he and his little terrors all use the same one.”

The blue mech finally stopped walking and craned his head around to stare at Jazz. “You know Soundwave’s security codes and you want us to pretend to be one of his symbiotes and use them to escape.”

“Yep.”

“Primus. Just how much damage did Vortex do to your processor?”

“Tex didn’t mess much with my processor.” Despite the pain he had to be in, the saboteur grinned. “Was more likely the love tap my carrier gave me after I was captured.”

“Primus,” Mirage swore again. “There are many more things wrong with you than I ever realized.”

“Tell me about it, but after we’re on the lift.”

Obediently, the noble started walking again. He turned left at the corner as instructed and carried his team leader to the lift.

 

 **Home**  
Jazz was barely awake when Optimus stepped into medbay and sat down beside him. He gave the large mech a sleepy smile as the Prime became a solid shape on his sonar map, rather than the hazy blur of a moving object. “Hey, Optimus.”

“Welcome home, Jazz.” Optimus sounded worried, but the saboteur didn't have enough energy to reassure his lover that everything would be all right. “Don't ever scare me like that again.”

“‘Raj said you were about ten kliks away from storming the base to bring me back.” Jazz reached out for Optimus’ and squeezed when the blue and red mech grabbed his hand. 

“I'm glad I didn't have to. Megatron isn't happy, though.”

“He never is. I don't want to talk about my carrier, though. I just want to rest and recover, and maybe hear you sing some of those old dock worker songs.”

The Prime chuckled, a warm sound that made Jazz smiled again. “Why you like those, I will never understand.”

“It's your voice. Could be reciting one of Perceptor’s formulas and you'd have my attention.” 

“As you wish, then.” The smile was clear in Optimus’ as the large mech began to sing softly.

 

 **red**  
For a long moment, Optimus stared at the optics that had been hidden under the broken visor. The red lenses were enough of a surprise--Jazz had never been framed for a warrior class--but it was the damaged components under the glass that held his attention.

Every sensor or mechanism in Jazz’s optic sockets was a melted mass of metal or plastics.

“I understand why you wear it now,” the red and blue mech said. Then he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss above each optic.

Jazz sobbed once and pulled his lover into a tight embrace.

 

 **carry on**   
“Jazz, what Megatron did to you--”

“Ain't nothin’ he hasn't done before a couple dozen times.” Jazz reached for Optimus’ hand and squeezed tightly. “Vortex was a new twist, but that wasn't anything I can't deal with, either. I'm fine, Optimus.”

“Primus, Jazz.” the Prime clutched the smaller mech’s hand to his chest. “He's your carrier!”

“He was always Lord Megatron first, gladiator Megatron second, your rival third and my carrier a very distant fourth.” the saboteur squeezed the other mech’s hand again. “He only kept me as a way to defy his owner, back then. I don't have any illusions about what I mean to him.”

Optimus looked away, and down at the floor. “It really means nothing to you?”

“I never said that. I'd give anything to have a carrier who cared about me a tenth as much as Alpha Trion cares about you. But this is just… how things are. I can either be upset or move on.”

Slowly, almost hesitantly, the Prime nodded.

“I'd rather move on,” the black and white mech added. “Ain't nothin’ but sadness on Darkmount, and there's an awful lot going for me here.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“Well, there's this huge red and blue bot, real easy on the optics and with a spark as big as Cybertron. He makes it pretty easy.”

With a soft sigh, Optimus looked up again. “You refuse to allow me to feel bad about this, don't you?”

“If I don't feel bad, you can't feel bad. Let old Buckethead rust, cause you and me have some good times coming.”

 

 **Sticks and Stones**  
Jazz limped onto the command deck and stood next to Optimus as the Prime listened to another of Megatron’s ranting comm calls. His carrier broke off mid-word as he spotted the black and white and his focus changed topics quickly.

_”You traitor! You lying, deceitful, ungrateful Pit spawned--!”_

“Ah, ah,” Jazz chastised gently. “Don’t fire a blaster at that weapons locker.”

On screen, the warlord’s optics narrowed. “I will eviscerate you myself.”

“You keep saying things like that.” The saboteur relaxed as Optimus settle one hand onto his shoulder. “But if Vortex couldn’t get the job done, you don’t stand a chance. Call back when you’ve got more than threats to back you up.”

 _”When I have more than threats, not even you will hear me coming.”_ Megatron cut the connection without even looking at the Prime again.

“Frag me,” Jazz said when the comm line was closed. “You were right about how mad he is. Better start prepping a good defense.”

“We already have,” Optimus assured him.

“Good.” The black and white mech leaned into his partner’s side with a soft sigh. “Guess I better start planning another trip to Darkmount. One of us needs to figure out when he’s actually coming.”

“Megatron will come soon enough, especially since he believes you have personally insulted him.”

“Well, I sort of did.”

“I know. That’s why I don’t want you going back there yet. He’ll come to us.” Optimus slid his hand down off Jazz’s shoulder and used it to hug the saboteur gently--the kind of public display of affection they both would have refrained from a few days ago. “Until then, I want you to work with the tactical unit to coordinate new defensive plans. You know the way he thinks better than any of us. It is time to use that against him.”

 

 **Up all night**  
Jazz watched, feeling the usual detachment he felt on a deep-cover mission, as the explosives in the hall below him detonated and took out the Decepticon infiltration team. They would have to completely rebuild this hall if Optimus decided the army was going to keep using this base after today’s battle; this was the fourth explosive he’d detonated in the corridor in a groon. He’d have to move on soon, like he had since the assault started just after sundown, or the ceiling would crumble under his weight.

But first, he needed to check in with his teams. He opened a comm line while scanning the hall again. “Ops One, report.”

 _”Four targets down, three escaped,”_ Bumblebee replied promptly. _”They ran right into Sunstreaker’s squad outside the door, though. They won’t be a problem again.”_

“Good to hear. Ops two?”

 _”Silent as a crypt here. Not even so much as a symbiote in the last groon.”_ Mirage sounded almost annoyed. 

“Better that than in the vents with you,” Jazz assured his teammate. “TacOps?”

 _”Things are a mess, Jazz,”_ Smokescreen’s voice was an unwelcome surprise. Prowl was supposed to be in charge of team four. Breaker went down about ten joors ago, so Prowl dropped down to the field. We’re doing our best, but two of us can’t keep up with all the shock troops Megatron’s throwing at us.”

The black and white mech frowned. “Ops two, reposition to assist TacOps. I’ll drop some walls here to keep the Cons out of this hallway and meet you there.”

 _”Acknowledged.”_ Mirage sounded slightly less annoyed with his change in orders.

 _”Thanks, Jazz,”_ Smokescreen added. _”See you… Holy frag.”_

“Smokes? What’s going on?” Jazz’s professional detachment fell away in sudden worry for his younger friend. 

_”Megatron is out there tangling with Prowl and Ironhide. A-and I think he’s **losing**.”_

“The frag?” Surely someone had to have seen or reported incorrectly. There was no way that Ironhide and Prowl were tough enough to take _his_ carrier down on their own. “Hang on, I’m on my way.”

Jazz crawled a few meters further down the air duct before detonating a pair of explosives he had placed specifically to bring down the walls and block the corridor if the Decepticon presence in this wing of the base became too much. Once the smoke cleared, he started crawling quickly toward Smokescreen’s position.

 _”Holy frag!”_ Smokescreen’s unauthorized wide-band communication caught him off guard and he paused long enough to listen to the younger mech's words. _”Holy frag, Prowl just killed Megatron!”_

Jazz felt his world tilt sideways.

 

 **put your burden down**  
“Jazz, are you all right?”

“I don't know.” The black and white mech rested his head on his knees. “I know I shouldn't be sad, but I am. How fragged up is that?”

“He may not have loved you, but he was the only carrier you had.” Optimus sat down next to his lover and rested a comforting hand on Jazz’s back. “It is understandable that you are upset that he's gone. Even on opposite sides, he was a constant in your life.”

"A constant fear, anyway.” Jazz leaned into the offered comfort with a sigh. 

“You don't have to be afraid of him anymore.”

“Yeah.” the saboteur sighed again, and shifted so that his was resting against the Prime’s chest. “Is it true that Prowl killed him? I was still in the ductwork when he went down.”

“Ironhide and Prowl, yes. Though it was definitely an acid round that delivered the fatal blow.”

“Have to send him a thank you note. Maybe someday I'll recharge the whole night now.”

“Someday you will.” Optimus bent down and pressed a kiss to the top of Jazz's head. “Until then, I will stay up with you and we will remember that Megatron is truly just a bad dream now.”

 

 **playing our song**  
Jazz smiled as the notes of a song floated softly through the acid rain shelter, warm and reminiscent of another time and place. “You remember the first time we heard this one?”

“I do. It was just after you had enlisted.” Optimus’ responding smile was as soft and warm as the song. “You rescued me from Senator Flex and dragged me onto the dance floor. I didn't know the steps, but you didn't mock me.”

“You learned quick.” The black and white mech’s smile widened. “I remember thinking I could have danced with you all night.”

“We could tonight. The storm will keep us inside until well after the next sunrise.” The Prime’s suggestion was casual, but Jazz didn't miss the touch of very real interest.

“I like the sound of that,” the saboteur replied, climbing to his feet. “Let me go find our sound mech and pass him a few more files.”

He knew he could really get used to this; this was the way life was _supposed_ to be.


End file.
